You Don’t Want To Read The Bible, Now What?

Welcome to familiar territory. I would be shocked to hear of a single saint in the past few thousand years that did not feel this way at one time or another.

Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. That’s something you might expect me to say, but I can’t, because it is a lie. It is your fault. There is no deficiency when God speaks and what he has given us in scripture is indescribably amazing.

The testimony of scripture is that we are by default unlikely to want to listen to anything God has to say.

And if scripture has gotten that right about you, what else might it have to say? That’s what I say to myself when I’m not in a place where I want to eat the bread of life. I say, “well, ok.. I know I feel this way because of my nature… and I know God has promised to shape me into a new nature… and I know he has put new desires in me and I know that’s true because on one hand I do WANT to read the bible but my feelings betray me.. so… ok.. let’s just do it. Start small.. one verse, two verse..” If I can get myself to a place where I start reading, despite my lack of interest, invariably I find that my lack of interest fades and my joy in the lord springs to life.

The less I read, the less I want to read. The more I read, the more I want to read.

If that is you today – feeling no interest in scripture, but wanting to read – there is literally no advice better than what Nike has to say. Just do it.

Pray to God to open your eyes to see what wonders his law holds. Here are some texts for you from Psalm 119.

Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.